Rule of Law

In the 116th Congress of the United States of America, which took place from January 3, 2019 to January 3, 2021, the men and women elected to represent We the People created 16,601 new laws, resolutions and other pieces of legislation to govern our lives. To operationalize all of this, regulatory bodies create rules, which are captured in the Federal Register. A visit to the Federal Register Web site enables one to search through 854,499 documents (not including those established prior to 1994) that comprise rules and regulations related to 867 topics, from accountants, adhesives and air taxis to mangos, marijuana and, yes, mattresses (presumably with or without mattress tags) to yogurt, youth and, ultimately, zinc.

By way of example, it’s interesting to note that there are 85 entries in the Federal Register related to the regulation of prunes but only five related to search warrants. The topic with the most entries is reporting and recordkeeping requirements (45,070), and the tragic scourge of venereal disease has but a single entry.

Walk through your average day, which hopefully doesn’t include venereal disease! There is almost no activity that isn’t regulated by the government; and all this is just at the federal level. Add in state, county and municipal governments and their laws, and that small sliver of freedom is likely gobbled up. As if that is not enough, people voluntarily enter into conditions like home owner agreements as a way of discarding any last crumbs of free choice.

In “The Road to Serfdom,” F.A. Hayek, who received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974 and the Medal of Freedom in 1991, wrote, “every law restricts individual freedom to some extent by altering the means which people may use in the pursuit of their aims.”

It is difficult to overstate the correctness and the magnitude of this simple statement. Take pause and consider what Hayek is saying.

In a two-year period alone, Congress has restricted some aspect of our freedom — of our Liberty — more than 16 thousand times. Since 1994, the federal government has restricted our freedom more than 850 thousand times.

With an average American life expectancy of 80.5 years, which comes out to be approximately 29,382 days, give or take, one would need to live 29 lifetimes if they were to address just one document in the Federal Register per day.

And more laws are passed each year, new regulations are promulgated each day, actually each quarter to be more precise. With each passage and promulgation, our freedom is curtailed.

Is this a social contract designed to effect our Liberty and our freedom to make choices about our own lives, or is it designed as some sort of Machiavellian set of rules to effect our subjugation to the state?

The next time you eat a raisin, consider that there are 103 entries in the Federal Register, which means there are 103 opportunities for knowingly or, more likely, unknowingly breaking these rules and regulations by anyone who endeavors to shrivel a grape or to eat the resultant raisin.

Kind reader, remember that each of us, you and I, are heirs to Hamilton, Jay and Madison. You are Publius, as am I. It is time to let our representatives — at every level — know that we want our Liberty restored. The legitimate role of government, too, must be restored and preserved, which is to maximize individual freedom relative to others. Simply put, each of us ought to be, and by divine right are, free to pursue our own objectives insofar as they do not infringe upon the right and ability of others to do the same.

Does the current level of regulation foster liberty or tyranny for the individual?

Your humble and obedient servant,

Publius